The present invention relates to a medical monitoring system wherein a subject to be diagnosed is located outside medical facilities, the subject being, for example, a patient residing at home, or a driver or a operator on railway vehicles, vessel, or an aircraft, and the organic information of the subject is detected to watch over the health thereof.
There has recently been developed a medical monitoring system wherein organic information, for example an electrocardiogram, of a subject who is not at a medical facility is transmitted to a medical service center by way of such a transmission system as a telephone line. The health of the subject can be monitored using the transmitted organic information.
The medical monitoring system is used to continuously monitor the health of the aged living alone by employing the medical information such as the electrocardiogram or blood pressure. Any symptom which indicates a decline in health is reported to the medical facility, thereby enabling to send a doctor to the subject. In the case where organic information of a driver on duty on a public transportation system, for example a bus, is monitored, when a symptom indicating a deterioration of health is detected, measures are taken to relieve the driver of his duty.
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open 8-38435 discloses a conventional monitoring system for health care of a patient at home, and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open 6-22914 discloses a system for detecting organic information of an operator on railway vehicles.
The above described conventional monitoring systems each thus monitors the health at the service center dependent on electrocardiogram data and blood pressure data transmitted from electrocardiograph and sphygmomanometer provided at a home of a patient or at a seat of a driver of a motor vehicle.
However, it is difficult to diagnose one""s health based only on measured data of the electrocardiogram and blood pressure in practice. More particularly, it is extremely difficult to diagnose arrhythmia of heart dependent only on the data of the electrocardiogram, and often results in erroneous diagnosis. In addition, due to the malfunctioning of the electrocardiograph and sphygmomanometer, there may occur a deficiency or error in the measured data obtained from the electrocardiograph and sphygmomanometer, which becomes a hindrance when attempting to accurately diagnose the health of the subject.
On the other hand, if the number of the measured data is increased to improve the accuracy of the diagnosis, there occur problems of rise in cost and increase in burden for data processing.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medical monitoring system wherein the above-described problems are resolved so that the health of the subject who is outside a medical facility can be accurately diagnosed, and the subject may receive an appropriate treatment.
According to the present invention, there is provided a medical monitoring system wherein health condition of a subject is monitored at a place away from where the subject exists, comprising, first detecting means provide data place where a subject exists, for detecting organic condition of the subject, first diagnosing means for diagnosing health condition of the subject based on the organic condition detected by the first detecting means and for producing first organic data, first transmitting means for transmitting the first organic data to.a service center, second detecting means for detecting visual condition of the subject or audio condition based on voice of the subject and for producing second organic data, and second transmitting means for transmitting the second organic data to the service center, second diagnosing means provided in the service center for diagnosing the health condition of the subject based on the first and second organic data.
The place where the subject exists is a residence of the subject.
The place where the subject exists is a seat of a driver of transportation means.
The transportation means is provided with a Global Positioning System.
The health condition is classified into a plurality of levels beforehand and set in the second diagnosing means.
The present invention further provides a medical monitoring system wherein health condition of a subject is monitored at a place away from where the subject exists, comprising, first detecting means provided at a place where a subject exists, for detecting organic condition of the subject and for producing first organic data, first transmitting means for transmitting the first organic data to a service center, second detecting means for detecting visual condition of the subject or audio condition based on voice of the subject and for producing second organic data, second transmitting means for transmitting the second organic data to the service center, and diagnosing means provided in the service center for diagnosing the health condition of the subject based on the first and second organic data.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings.